2011 Eastern Conference Finals: Bosh outduels Boozer as Heat take 2-1 series lead

when the score is close and each possession matters so much, you need defense. I think Korver should play more with the bench and boozer. We saw last night how when rose was out, the offense ran through korver, who set up some touches for boozer inside and also led to korver’s only 3-point attempt of the night. I thought this worked really well with watson and gibson (or was it asik?) on the floor to provide D.

And it’s kind of pathetic that he’s getting evened out by Mike Bibby. Maybe it’s fatigue after his first long extended season but Derrick just isn’t looking effective at all.

We didn’t play well, but nothing has changed. We used up one of our three chances to win on their court, that’s all.

Now, can Miami do what it’s supposed to do in game 4?

He needs to get to the line and do it from the start of the game. not the second quarter or when ever he feels like it. It would be nice if Thibs would post him or get him closer to the basket.

We need his 15 footer.

The Bulls can’t win this series if they are going to be called for nearly every touch foul / leaning pick / hand check / borderline reach while the Heat are allowed to muscle them without getting whistled. The touch fouls called on Noah and Gibson (especially while the Bulls are on offense) cost us key possessions, screw up our substitution patterns and prevent any kind of offensive rhythm. Meanwhile the refs didn’t call any reach-ins against the Heat and especially LeBron, who appeared to be abusing Rose (at least in my admittedly biased eyes).

shit fuck- we lost.

to spread the floor for Rose. Go Rose, Bogans, Korver, Deng and Noah. On offense have Noah set a pick for Rose with Deng and Bogans in the corners and Korver near the top past the 3 pt line ready to shoot. If they collapse his the open guy for a 3. If they trap, give it to Noah and let him make the play. Right now it almost looks like the Heat are playing a zone – box and 1, daring the Bulls to shoot from outside and trapping Rose whenever he gets near the basket. With Deng at the 4 the increased 3 pt shooting and slashing could be beneficial.

Defensively, if they don’t go small too, put Korver on Anthony or Haslem and tell all 5 guys to crash the defensive boards.

Crazy at it sounds, I think at this point stopping Bosh is more important than stopping Wade. Bosh is merely a safety valve on most of Miami’s sets, their bailout guy when the defense collapses. Take away him and force James and Wade to take stupid shots (which they have dutifully obliged with).

Dribbles ball out of bounds (not good)
Dunk rejected by the rim (bad)
Dunk rejected by Boozer (unheard of)

It will be talked about the whole year maybe even during the maybe lockout

but Brewer X rose X deng X gibson and booz lineup looked pretty good

was due, in part, to Noah and Omer’s early foul trouble, but that’s still too many minutes in comparison with Taj’s 12.

With Noah not playing well, Omer’s limited ability on offense, and Boozer’s dreadful defense, I don’t like the Bulls chances if Taj isn’t given more impactful minutes.

I’m not saying that Taj is a cure-all to what has ailed the Bulls over the last 2 games, but he is one of the team’s better 2 way players.

Bosh is a good player, but does anyone think he scores 34 points if Taj is on him more often?

Interesting because I’m not in Chicago, and the over-confidence just grew and grew, got more abrasive and more ad hominem-like. I understand it’s part of sports fandom, but it really is weird to me.

What I didn’t expect is that it would carry over to the team itself. Rose is the “leader” of this team, and he’s always been outwardly humble and respectful. But Boozer calling Miami the Big Two (I don’t think anyone needs to agree that they’re a “Big Three”, but to refer to them as a Big Two is an obvious dig at Bosh), and now Bogans and Gibson talking shit in-game (even though talking is a part of the NBA, these guys doing it now seems different), it does almost seem like this team’s confidence in itself has become arrogance.

That bothers me.

(the usual disclaimer: I’m not a mind-reader so any of this arm-chair mind-reading is not my attempt to state an undeniable fact)

Rose can play better but I dont blame him for these losses. I blame the shooters or lack there of. Miami knows they dont have to worry about bogans, brewer or even deng to a certain extent killing from beyond the arc, and when korver is struggling like he is, it is really difficult for Rose to get a step on any of these guys because they are not worried about anybody but him.

thanks to This im not pissed anymore

He played horrible. Like Matt mentioned, off the top of my head, I think I remember Booz missing 5 layups (some and 1’s). His defense was pathetic as usual and allowed the Heat do do whatever they wanted to inside. Unlike Miami (with Bosh leading the game in scoring), I don’t think we have a chance in ny game this series with Boozer being our leading scorer. I’d much rather Taj have half the stat line Booze had with Taj’s impact on defense. Now you throw in Kyle’s desperation D, it’s like playing with one hand tied behund your back (Most of that has to do with Miami’s offense). We were able to get away with it against lesser teams of the league but not against these guys.

The only way we win this series (or even a game at this point) is to ride our best defensive lineups out there and frustrate the hell outta the Heat. Play Booz and Korver out for short stretches (doubt Thibs ever does it with Booz at this point) and ride Noah, Brewer, Deng and Gibson more. The longer you give Miami confidense, the more dangerous they get.

Also, I’m not one to throw the refs under the bus constantly like most here do, but that was one of the poorest officiated game I’ve seen all year. I’m still wondering what happened on that in bounds steal Deng took. You take Noah out of the game early on some questionable calls and now we’re hoping for Asik to help carry this team for a long stretch. Noah is and will always be the heart and soul of this team.

As for the trash talking, I’m into it. Bulls aren’t getting frustrated with the Heat. I think the ego of the team has grown into thinking this team is clearly better than Miami. It may not get into Miami’s head (I really don’t know or care) but the Bulls clearly hate this Heat team as much as we all do and instead of us screaming at the TV, they’re able to scream it at the Heat’s players.

I don’t think this is homerism really, but I’m so damn confident we take game 4. I give Miami tons of credit on defense so far but I can’t see this team playing so poorly for game 4. Asik’s injury is a huge question mark but maybe this plays Thomas finally (Which I really think could be a great thing this series).

Cliff notes version: Boozer, Korver and Bogans are killing us. Bulls win game 4. Shit talk all fucking day, just back it up. New refs please. More xanax needed

The refs were terrible in the first half, but the Bulls stayed close and in the end could not pull away. I am starting to worry about Thibs here. I realize the focus in on defense and I agree it should be, but at least make smart offensive choices. There are some very simple things he could be doing to alleviate pressure off Derrick Rose and to open things up for others. First, stop setting isolated high screens for Rose. All this does is force the ball out of your best players hands. I would love to see a pass into the high post to Boozer and then Noah (or someone else) setting a flare screen for Rose. This would get Rose open on the wing with room and possibly isolated against a big man defener. Rose can drive and kick or drive and finish at that point. If the D starts overplaying, Noah simply slips the screen for the easy high low layup. Bottom line, run Rose off the ball with screens, but enough of the high screen roll. Furthermore, if Wade is guarding Korver, run him around as many screens as possible. The more Wade has to run through screens, the better. I just don’t get Thibs insistance to take the ball out of his best player’s hand by bringing the double team to him. And if you are going to do this, keep Noah as the one setting screens since he is the better passer (6ast, mostly on those 4 on 3 situations created by the high screen). I am not saying Rose should not be the PG, but run him off ball more and stop bringing the double team to him.

Look at what they done in the regular season. I mean come on 62 win team doesn’t only win on defense. What I do believe is that we are choking big time. I still have faith that they can pull through. Maybe im just a naive Bulls fan.

he sets really good screens. he can hold back 3 players with one shoulder.

The winner of tomorrows game wins the series. If the Heat win, the Bulls won’t be coming back from down 3-1, and if the Bulls win, it’s a 3 game series with 2 games in Chicago. No way we lose at the UC twice in 1 series.

But losing to the Heat in the playoffs was probably the most depressing thing anyone could have come up with.

Although I’ll be the first to admit the level of my depression yesterday and today was quite high, I’ve finally talked myself off the ledge haha…

You guys, this is our team. Regardless of what people say – they won 62 games. I don’t care that it was regular season and playoffs are different..blah, blah blah. It’s not really about that. It’s about the fact that this team works hard and they have it in them. This is the #1 ranked NBA team this year – that’s not so easy to accomplish. It’s in them, I know it’s there, they just have to bring it. People are talking all this crap about Drose and Noah and the whole team in general..ok really people? Rose is 22 years old, has ALL eyes on him as the MVP, his first legit trip to the ECF, on top of the WHOLE town depending on him for a win…what 22 year old wouldn’t stumble?? Cut him some slack, he will come through.

I am amazed to see how quickly everyone wrote the bulls off after just 2 losses to an extremely talented basketball team (it’s not like this was the Bucks or anything). After Game 1, people were saying “bulls will sweep, bulls in 4” and now it is “Bulls are done” Really guys?? After 2 losses? Have faith in your team! Since no one from the media has faith, as fans, we at least owe that to the Bulls. Isn’t this what separates REAL fans from bandwagon fans? We gotto support them through wins and loses. People are acting like Miami has already won 4 games. Until the bulls officially lose the ECF, they are not done!

We don’t want the Bulls giving up, do we? So why would we give up on this team? Just look back and see what we have accomplished thus far. This team is GOOD..let’s just relax and hope they show up to be the team that we have watched all season.

GO BULLS!

and so is the next one, and the next one. And we’re good.

I don’t think I could handle a loss tomorrow. It would shatter me.

I just feel like there’s no way we lose. Just won’t happen. Just can’t!

The last game, we did well against Bron-Bron and Wade. We only lost by 10, and we shot well from 3, and rebounded well, and really, Bosh isnt going to keep shooting that well, and neither is Haslem. Also, somewhere I saw the insertion of Korver late cost us a 9 point swing.

So: We play our D lineup, we shoot more threes (Deng, please shoot ;-) ) , and we body up Bosh some more to disrupt his shooting, and we should be fine. Remember, we blew them out in game 1- its still in us.

A team where one of their players makes a ridiculous posterizing dunk on someone usually lose that series or the following series?

I’m only in the 2nd quarter but there are already a lot of bad calls that have gone against the Bulls.

Rose was fouled at least 2 times in the 1st quarter alone (maybe a 3rd time) & all would have been shooting fouls.

Deng did not foul Lebron on that 3 point attempt (in the 1st qtr).

Thought it was a good call live but on that Boozer charge in the 2nd qtr that Haslem drew, Haslem’s foot was all the way in the circle, should have been a block. Boozer should have taken the wide open he had tho. Btw, the ref that’s makes the call isn’t even looking at where Haslem was. Just watched Boozer “charge” into him and automatically signals it that way.

Noah is argueably the Bulls 2nd best player. He MUST play like it.
Where is that dominant player from before his injury? Bulls need THAT guy to show up.